For a while, it seemed like Soccer Team had faded into retirement. Originally a duo consisting of bassist/vocalist Melissa Quinley and drummer/guitarist/vocalist Ryan Nelson, they released their first album “Volunteered” Civility and Professionalism—a collection of 14 woozy lo-fi indie-pop gems—on Dischord Records in 2006, but Nelson relocated to Kalamazoo, Mich. not long after. Though the band managed to put out some music—a three-song 7″ was released on Lovitt Records in 2011—they mostly remained dormant. 

But Nelson—who also plays in Beauty Pill—moved back to the D.C. area in 2012 and put the team back together, this time recruiting keyboardist/guitarist Jason Hutto (The Aquarium, Warm Sun) and drummer Dennis Kane to round out the lineup. Dischord is putting out the band’s second full-length record, Real Lessons In Cynicism, on Oct. 27, and Brooklyn Vegan just premiered the second track from the album.

“It’s too bad when genre falls prey to its fan / It’s degrading to subject us to boring test-proof demons,” Nelson and Quinley sing on “Too Many Lens Flares,” a shimmery, none-too-subtle bemoaning of how Hollywood has ruined movies. “Has film become only useful depictions of whether good and bad exists amid spots cast by the sun?” the two vocalists ask in harmony over a driving melody, anchored by Quinley’s commanding bass line.

The song’s “Old Man Yells At Cloud”-like message may seem crotchety, but would you expect anything less from an album entitled Real Lessons In Cynicism? Perhaps Michael Bay should heed their complaints.

Listen to “Too Many Lens Flares” here. Check out the first single from the album, “Friends Who Know,” below:

Photo by Christopher Grady, courtesy Dischord Records